Why this ride
A 245 km round trip from Vigarano Pieve - roughly 3 h 47 in the saddle. The stops in between: Villa Badoer, Ferrara, Università e Accademia and back through Ferrara.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Diamantina and Università e Accademia
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 245 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 47
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Mille Miglia Historic Route Core
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 38 km this is Mille Miglia Historic Route Core, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 38 km
- Named road
- Mille Miglia Historic Route Core
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Diamantina
The Este dukes of Ferrara loved their countryside retreats, the delizie, and they scattered them across the flat land around the city like jewels on a cloth. The Diamantina, near Vigarano Pieve west of Ferrara, was one of them, an estate of farmland, woods and buildings named after the diamond, a symbol of the Este family. The delizie are part of the UNESCO listing of Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta, which recognises the city's planned urban layout and the way the Este shaped the surrounding landscape, draining marshes and creating farms and hunting grounds.
Read the complete Diamantina write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Diamantina is where the day begins. Next is Villa Badoer.
2. Villa Badoer
Fratta Polesine is a quiet village in the Polesine, the flat, fertile land between the Adige and the Po in the south of the Veneto, and its pride is a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Badoer, built in the 1550s for Francesco Badoer, a Venetian nobleman, stands on a raised platform above the surrounding fields, with a temple-front portico, curved colonnades sweeping out on either side to farm buildings, and a grand staircase. It was the first of Palladio's villas to use the curved barchesse, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Inside, the walls carry frescoes, and the villa houses a museum about the Polesine and its history.
Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Badoer comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ferrara.
3. Ferrara
Ferrara is a city built for walking and cycling, with flat streets, a ring of Renaissance walls nine kilometres long, and so many bicycles that it is called the city of bicycles. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, under the Este family, it was one of the great courts of Renaissance Italy, and the Estense castle, with its moat and drawbridges, still dominates the centre. The city's Renaissance planning, especially the Herculean Addition, a new quarter laid out in the late fifteenth century, led historians to call it the first modern city in Europe, and UNESCO has inscribed Ferrara and the Po Delta as a World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Ferrara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Ferrara. Next is Università e Accademia.
4. Università e Accademia
Walk into the courtyard of the Archiginnasio in Bologna and you walk into a gallery of coats of arms. Thousands of them cover the walls and ceilings, painted and carved by students over the centuries, each one a small act of vanity from a young man far from home. This was the main seat of the University of Bologna, which claims to be the oldest university in the world, founded in 1088. Students from all over Europe gathered here to study law, and the city got rich and proud on them. Dante, Petrarch and Copernicus are among the names said to have passed through, and the university's first women professors arrived here long before most of Europe allowed such a thing.
Read the complete Università e Accademia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Università e Accademia, about halfway. Next is back through Ferrara.
5. back through Ferrara
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ferrara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Ferrara sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Badoer.
6. back through Villa Badoer
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Badoer comes up about 204 km into the recorded legs. Next is Diamantina.
7. Diamantina
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Diamantina write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Diamantina closes the day.
Leg by leg
Diamantina to Villa Badoer
Diamantina → Villa Badoer is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Badoer to Ferrara
Villa Badoer → Ferrara is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ferrara to Università e Accademia
Ferrara → Università e Accademia is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Università e Accademia to back through Ferrara
Università e Accademia → back through Ferrara is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ferrara to back through Villa Badoer
back through Ferrara → back through Villa Badoer is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Badoer to Diamantina
back through Villa Badoer → Diamantina is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.